Major ETF Families: BlackRock, Inc. (iShares ETFs)

BlackRock, Inc. is the largest provider of ETFs, with over $809 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM) as of June 30, 2015. BlackRock's ETFs are marketed under the name iShares.

BlackRock was founded in 1988 by Laurence D. (Larry) Fink, Robert S. Kapito, Susan Wagner, Barbara Novick, Ben Golub, Hugh Frater, Ralph Schlosstein and Keith Anderson. Previously, Fink, Kapito, Golub and Novick had all worked for First Boston. Fink and his partners had been pioneers in the field of mortgage-backed securities.

Initially, Fink and his partners received funding from Pete Peterson of The Blackstone Group. Their goal was to build a disciplined asset management firm, with an emphasis on risk management. In 1992, the firm adopted the name BlackRock. Ultimately, BlackRock became a public company in 1999, with broad employee ownership.

As one indication of the respect with which this company is viewed, following the financial crisis of 2008, BlackRock was selected in 2009 by the U.S. Treasury to help manage the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).

The iShares Family of ETFs

As featured in my article on Vanguard Funds, State Street Global Advisors launched the very first ETF, the SPDR Fund (Ticker Symbol: SPY), on January 22, 1993.

In response, Morgan Stanley launched a series of competing ETFs, called the World Equity Benchmark Shares (WEBS). These were launched in conjunction with Barclays Global Investors, who managed the funds. In 2000, Barclays launched an additional 40 ETFs, to better compete in the growing ETF marketplace. Some nine years later, in 2009, Barclays reached an agreement to sell the funds to CVC Capital Partners, for an amount somewhere in the $4-6 billion range. However, BlackRock stepped in and struck an agreement to purchase Barclays Global Investors, including the iShares family of ETFs, for a cash & stock deal worth approximately $15.2 billion.

Today, the iShares family of ETFs is comprised of some 330 ETFs. Fidelity Investments currently offers 70 iShares ETFs to their brokerage customers free of commissions (subject to certain limitations).  

Further Reading

BlackRock's "About Us" page, with a sub-topic on its history. 

Investopedia article: Introduction to BlackRock ETFs.